Orange Democratic Movement - 2007 Elections

2007 Elections

After the 2002 elections KANU was beaten into opposition, while LDP was a partner in the ruling NARC coalition, until it was kicked out after the 2005 referendum. LDP had supported no vote at the referendum, thus being against president Kibaki. Following their united stand in the referendum debate and responding to a threat by a newly formed Narc-Kenya party, the leaders of KANU, LDP and some smaller parties decided to team up for the upcoming 2007 Kenya general elections, forming the Orange Democratic Movement, which was named after the symbol of an orange used to represent "No" in the referendum. However, opportunist lawyer Mugambi Imanyara managed to register ODM as a party before the coalition did, forcing them instead to use the ODM-Kenya banner. As 2007 progressed the coalition proved unstable, with various factions defecting. Uhuru Kenyatta's KANU were the first, pulling out in July 2007 and endorsing President Kibaki’s reelection, although some individual KANU politicians stayed in ODM. Then, due to internal rivalry between Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga, ODM split into two factions in mid-August2007. Raila's group, which also included Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, Joseph Nyagah and Najib Balala defected from ODM Kenya and took over the ODM party registered by Mugambi Imanyara, while Kalonzo's group, led by himself and Dr. Julia Ojiambo remained in the original ODM-Kenya.

The two factions held their elections for presidential candidate on consecutive days at the Kasarani sports complex in Nairobi. On 31 August 2007, Kalonzo Musyoka defeated Julia Ojiambo for the ODM–Kenya ticket, then on 1 September Raila Odinga defeated Ruto, Mudavadi, Balala and Nyagah. There were allegations that some delegates attended and voted in the nominations of both parties bringing to light the problem of ambiguous political party membership that is in Kenya. Raila and Kalonzo then faced president Kibaki in the general election. Kibaki was declared winner of the elections in circumstances that were described as "questionable" by various observers. The manner in which elections were conducted bordered on poll rigging. The now disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chairman, Samuel Kivuitu could not explain why votes from nearby constituencies had not reached tallying centre in Nairobi while those from far-flung zones of the country were tallied on time. Some poll results were erased by white out and re-written in favour of the then PNU presidential candidate. The maths failed to add up as many polling stations in perceived PNU zones had more votes cast than the number of registered voters. ODM disputed the results. Violence erupted in the country with ODM supporters in Kibera, Naivasha and Nakuru being targeted for attack by Mungiki terror gangs, allegedly backed by police. PNU supports were also targeted for attack by ODM supporters. People of ethnic Luo were killed by bullets in Kisumu, Kibera and Nakuru in large numbers while people of ethnic Kikuyu were killed in Rift Valley in large numbers.

ODM ended up winning the majority seats of in parliament. It became the largest party in parliament after the December 2007 elections with 99 members of parliament and went ahead to win 3 out of five by-elections in early 2008. However it seems that the jinx of losing Members of Parliament still haunts the party since no sooner had by-elections been conducted in the constituencies of two ODM MPs who were killed at the beginning of the year than two more MPs died in an aircraft crash. Some ODM MP's whose elections were contested in court have lost their seats and more elections petitions are still going on.